A $US50million soft loan has been approved by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to support the overhaul of Fiji’s health system under the regional Pacific Healthy Islands Transformation Project (PHIT) it is co-financing with the World Bank.
The loan is part of the $US181.94 million total financing package for the Fiji leg of PHIT – the first project in the Pacific to be cofinanced under the Full Mutual Reliance Framework (FMRF), established by the two agencies early last year.
“This project is groundbreaking, as it enables ADB and the World Bank to efficiently combine financing and expertise to deliver long-term regional health resilience,” ADB’s regional director of the Pacific Subregional Office Azusa Sato said.
“Fiji plays a critical regional role in training health professionals and delivering specialist services across the Pacific.
“By modernising primary care, investing in digital connectivity and strengthening the regional referral hospital, the project reinforces Fiji’s role as a Pacific health hub.”
PHIT, according to a statement from ADB, is aligned to Fiji’s Digital Health Strategy 2023–2027 and will enable real-time digital clinical support for health workers and upgrade health information systems to improve coordinated diagnostics and patient management.
“It will also finance the first phase of a new regional referral hospital and training facility at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital, including modern medical equipment and expanded training capacity.”
The two multilateral financial institutions had jointly announced the $US239.5m PHIT project in Manilla last December, saying it was significant in that it will “mark the largest single operation of the World Bank Group in the Pacific”, with the World Bank being the lead agency for the project. In response to questions sent to the World Bank by this newspaper after that launch, it confirmed that of the total $US239.5m financing for PHIT, $US181.9m (financed through multiple financing sources -see table below) is allocated to Fiji and the rest to other Pacific countries that are also part of the project
“Fiji is using PHIT to support a major health sector reform, of which $US70 million from the project financing will go toward investments at CWM Hospital, a major component of the project.
“This includes starting the new referral and training hospital by building a Radiotherapy Center.
“PHIT will also fund rehabilitation of existing CWM buildings, based on the Priority Infrastructure Plan and in coordination with government and development partners,” the World Bank stated.
